


Cleaved

by tothineownelfbetrue



Category: Disenchantment (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, Bean and Luci are literal soulmates, Established Relationship, F/M, Immortality is awesome, Immortality sucks, Lots of worldbuilding is implied, Luci doesn't lose his immortality, Luci is a demon in love, M/M, Multi, OT3 FEELS, POV Third Person, Polyamory, Post-Canon, Present Tense, Prince Derek, Soulmates, Traveling, Wishing for death, but I won't tag them in the characters tag, kinda ghosts, no beta we die like men, ongoing illness, other characters show up too - Freeform, possession (of a sort), these crazy kids belong together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:14:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22354687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tothineownelfbetrue/pseuds/tothineownelfbetrue
Summary: When Luci was banished from Hell, he thought it meant eventually spending an eternity alone. The worst punishment that Hell could devise... having to watch his mortals die while he lives on.  It's a grim thought but maybe it's worth it.  So he thinks.It all ends with a death.  It all starts with one too.Or: That weird fic about the perils of Life After Death.
Relationships: Bean | Tiabeanie/Elfo (Disenchantment), Bean | Tiabeanie/Elfo/Luci (Disenchantment), Bean | Tiabeanie/Luci (Disenchantment), Elfo/Luci (Disenchantment)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 42





	Cleaved

**Author's Note:**

> This is an au continuation from the end of Disenchantment Part 2. There's a lot of world-building implied, but the major difference from canon is that Luci didn't lose his immortality when he was banished from Hell.

  
  


-

**Cleave [kleev] verb.**

  1. _To split or divide into separate parts, often by a cutting blow._



  
  
-

He feels when it happens. 

It was an inevitability. One of his mortals was going to go first. It makes sense that it would be Bean, not because of her age but because of the dangerous life she leads. There are no good wars.

He’s in the middle of pouring a drink and for a second the world splinters apart around him, shortly before the glass he’s holding shatters on the floor. He feels the wound, the thud of something hitting Bean in the chest and for just a second he knows what it feels like to die. He feels himself draw his last breath, Bean’s last breath.

He drops to the floor, hands and knees, not caring about the glass sinking into his skin. He reaches out across the vast distance between them and touches her mind. The fading flicker of her consciousness wraps itself around his own.

Then he feels the last fragile vestiges of Bean’s life fade away past their connection.

He crumples to the ground, unmoving. The castle staff don’t dare to try and move him. When Derek shows up, pale-faced and shaken, Luci knows what he’s going to say. He takes the words right out of the man’s mouth. “She’s dead.”

“Yes…” Derek swallows hard, Luci can see his hands shake as he clenches them into fists. “I’m sorry.” The demon has no idea if he knows the magnitude of this. Derek has lost a sister, a fellow king, a diplomat. Family. Luci has lost half of his everything.

It’s a wound he can’t recover from.

“Where’s Elfo?” He asks, impressed by his own calm.

“He’s… with Bean.”

Of course he is. Luci has no idea if he’d been with Bean when it had happened, but him being with her now is no surprise. As he makes his way to meet the returning party, he looks to spot Elfo’s green form. He sees him, walking beside the carefully carried pallet. His steps stumble on nothing.

“Luci…” He says as the demon comes down to greet them. His hands tremble and he stands there like he needs a hug but is too broken to ask. Luci gives him one. 

They make their way back to the bedroom and Elfo buries himself in the pile of blankets. Luci understands. It still smells like Bean. He expects more crying but it doesn’t happen immediately. After an hour or so of hiding in Bean’s room, the elf goes to talk to Derek. The rest happens in a blur.

Bean has the biggest funeral ever held in Dreamland or any of the Unified Kingdoms. He’s sure it’s beautiful. It’s impressive. It’s an ending befitting a High Queen. But it’s not an ending befitting Bean… his best friend. His literal soulmate.

That evening, after the crowds have left, together he and Elfo give Bean a Viking funeral. Soaked in booze and lit ablaze. It’s only while the flames rise high that Elfo breaks at last, dropping to his knees and keening like a wounded animal. Luci stays beside him. All night. They don’t leave until the flames have burned down to nothing.

“I thought I’d go first…” Elfo says, finally. For the first time since Luci has met him, he looks utterly tired. Older, really; worn down. Elfo’s hand brushes against his own chest and Luci knows exactly what he means. They’d all thought it, really. It felt like an inevitability when the weakness settled back into his lungs. That old injury again… Iron poisoning.

It’s a death sentence… but for Elfo, a slow one. His mother’s blood still runs in his veins and slows the decay down to a crawl. The poison will catch up to him someday… soon enough. 

Too soon.

He curls himself around Elfo in their bed. It’s too big and empty without Bean.

They choose someone new to take the seat of Dreamland and Derek steps up to take his sister’s place. “I’m not here to replace Bean,” he says. He looks tired too… the new flecks of grey in his hair more pronounced now. “No one can replace Bean. But we have to keep working together and go forward…to carry out her dream.” It’s a moving speech but it doesn’t touch Luci.

As he lays awake in bed, watching Elfo’s huddled form under the blankets, he knows that it’s only a matter of time before he’s completely alone. He knew this wouldn’t last… when he’d left Hell after they’d rescued Elfo, he’d been surprised to still have some of his powers left, but the most obvious one was his immortality. 

It was the one he’d wanted least.

Luci closes his eyes and tries to sleep.

-

He wakes up and Bean is beside him. He knows it with absolute certainty. When he opens his eyes there’s nothing, but still… he can feel her. When he closes his eyes again, he can see her there. “Bean… is this a dream?”

“I don’t think so.” She says. For an apparition, she seems as baffled as he is.

It comes to him then… He is bound to her soul and she is bound to him. That day the binding had been completed, they could never be torn apart again. He feels her hands on him, a phantom touch that is as real as a physical one to him. He leans into the warmth of her hands petting his ears.

“I’m keeping you here.” He says at last, after they’ve simply soaked up each other’s presence for a while. He’s grateful for the company but he’s learned guilt, in all his time on earth, and he knows that’s what he’s feeling now.

“I’m not in a rush.” She says, giving him a light smack on the shoulder in rebuke. “It’ll be nice to have a break from being Queen. Maybe we could actually go out and see more of the world.” He knows she’d missed their adventures after settling down. She’s right. She’s not bound to stay anymore and put the needs of the kingdom before her own. In a way, death has set her free.

No one else can see her though. Not even Elfo. 

He almost tells Elfo, but he’s not sure he’s ready to explain it just yet. He’s always thought being close to someone would be frustrating and it had baffled him how easily he’d taken to his relationships with Bean and Elfo. Now he finds her constant presence comforting.

“Is Elfo okay?” Bean asks him after a couple of days and he kicks himself a little for the fact that he’s been so caught up in Bean that he hasn’t spent much time with Elfo lately. Honestly, he’s kind of thought Elfo was holding up over Bean’s death better than he was. Now he wonders.

Bean’s right. He knows it after a day of observation and feels a little stupid that he hadn’t put it together before. Elfo’s not okay. Thinking he would be was foolish in the extreme. 

He tells Elfo about Bean that night, just the two of them sitting on the bed and Bean hovering nearby. Elfo looks at him like he’s been struck. It’s not the hopefulness or the happiness Luci is expecting. When Elfo doesn’t respond for a while, Luci feels his frustration mounting and he puts his ears back. His patience has never been his virtue and he’s out of it now. “Well?”

“Well... what?” Elfo asks and Luci, again, has the urge to smack him. Yellow eyes meet Luci’s gaze and the elf says, softly, “What do you expect me to say?” A sigh. “Why did you tell me this?”

It strikes Luci then. Elfo doesn’t believe him. And while there’s a part - a large part - of him that’s frustrated by the fact that after all this time knowing each other, being friends - being _more_ \- that he thinks Luci might deliberately feed him a lie. Especially one like this.. He’s ready to shake the elf until he comes to his senses.

He feels Bean’s hands on him then, grabbing at his shoulders, dragging him bodily backward. The fact that she can even do that should be proof enough of her existence, but Elfo’s not looking up so he doesn’t see it. She’s just trying to restrain him so he doesn’t do something they’ll both regret. No matter how infuriating the elf can be, they still love him damn it.

Whatever her intent, the result is not what he expects. Her hands that are holding onto his small shadowy body begin to sink right into him and he jolts, his body stiffening for a second. As a displaced spirit of some kind, Bean doesn’t precisely have mass, but as she continues toward him, drawn into his smaller body, he feels a sense of being over-full. It’s like he’s eaten a big meal, except there’s no food and what he’s feeling is Beans essence joined to his own in a way he could never have anticipated.

“What?” He’s not sure if he’s the one who says it or if Bean is, but it comes out of his own mouth in his own voice. It’s uncanny. He experiences a sensation of being out of control as his head looks down at his own hands. His fingers wiggle, but he’s not the one moving them. “Luci, how did you-”

It takes Bean longer than it took him to put it together but when she does he can feel it happen, the facts coming together in her mind into a complete picture. In the dim corner of his own body that he occupies, he’s also aware of Elfo’s eyes on them, the look of confusion and hurt on the elf’s face. “Are you… making fun of me?”

Bean doesn’t let the elf go too far into that line of thought, reaching out and dragging Elfo against her - their - chest and holding him with the sort of strength that only a desperate human can muster. Luci knows its different from his own awkward hugs and now he experiences it from this side. He’s not Bean, but Bean is _him_ for the moment. Elfo jerks in her grasp and then he draws a shaking breath. Bean starts talking then, babbling out words, she’s so happy to see him, she’s so sorry that he had to worry over her.

She’s sorry for not being more careful.

Luci expects Elfo to disbelieve again, to accuse him of some cruel prank, but he doesn’t. He knows Bean as well as he knows Luci and if this is something weird going on, he still accepts it for what it is. He clings back, letting out a small sob.

He doesn’t know how long they’re there, like that. Long enough that Elfo runs out of tears and Luci runs out of steam. At some point they just lay there, curled around each other like the rest of the world doesn’t exist. As Luci’s energy ebbs, Bean slips from his body. She’s still close, he can feel her stretched out beside them. Luci’s just glad to get his own body back. It was too strange a sensation.

“Is Bean gone?” Elfo asks, almost immediately. Luci’s not sure how he can tell so easily.

“She’s here. She’s just not in me anymore.” It’s a good thing that weirdness has always been normal for them because this is a kind of weirdness that Luci isn’t sure how to define. Elfo nods, but the knowledge that Bean is still here, still with them, is enough to soothe him. He falls asleep in Luci’s arms. Luci remains awake for a while afterward. His tail reaches out, coils against Bean’s intangible wrist and holds tight.

-

Adapting to this new situation takes some time. Bean can go into Luci’s form without too much trouble but she doesn’t seem to be able to go into anything else that they’ve found. Luci thinks its the soul bond between them and the other two agree, but it doesn’t stop them from trying anyway. 

Dimly Luci thinks that they must be able to find some way for Bean to exist physically outside of borrowing his body. He’d like that. As much as he enjoys the closeness to Bean, he doesn’t want to be a middleman. Besides, he’d like some genuine affection from her and it doesn’t feel the same to try and pet or hug himself.

It’s Elfo who does the legwork. He pores over the books in the library. Instead of being aimless, he seems full of energy. His determination astounds Luci. He brings his most promising findings to share with them. They review things and they formulate plans.

While Luci and Elfo are trying to find a way to bring Bean back in a more corporeal way, the kingdom is going on without them. Former King Zog passes away only a few months after the death of his daughter, survived by his selkie partner and the three cubs the two of them had somehow managed to raise after he’d abdicated the throne for the final time. Luci and Elfo attend the funeral, an awkward occurrence with Bean riding shotgun in Luci’s body. 

As Bean presses Luci’s paw to Zog’s cold cheek, he feels her emotions enough that he retreats as far back into himself as possible so he can give her some space.

Afterward, Bean disappears for a little bit. Luci wonders if she regrets the fact that she can’t move on to wherever her soul should go if it wasn’t tied to him like this. While he’s brooding about the thought, Elfo comes to him.

“Don’t feel bad, Luci.” He says.

Luci almost snaps back that Elfo can’t tell him what to do but then he stifles it. “She shouldn’t even be here. She wouldn’t be, if it weren’t for me.” He buries his face in his paws and just breathes. 

Elfo’s arms are warm around him, if a little less than they used to be. Luci leans into him. It’s Elfo who asks the question. “What normally happens when a mortal with a demon dies?”

It’s a good question. Luci knows the answer to that. “They go to Hell. The demon goes along with them and gets to torment them for Eternity.” As he says it, it sinks in. The system wasn’t made to deal with an exiled demon. Because Luci can’t return to Hell, Bean can’t either. Though given all that she’s accomplished, he isn’t even sure she’d go to Hell now.

Is he keeping her from Heaven? From some other fate that’s slated for her soul after her death? It occurs to him that there must be some way to break their bond and set her free, but he doesn’t know how to do so.

Selfishly, he’s not sure if he wants to. As long as she’s here, he’ll never be alone.

His paws tighten against Elfo’s shirt, gripping him as he’s reminded again that mortals are… well… mortal. He won’t lose Bean, not now, not without some kind of other bizarre circumstance… but Elfo, to whom he’s not soul-bonded, is another matter.

There’s a lot for him to think about. Too much.

-

Bean returns while Luci is still contemplating both his guilt and his selfishness. Unlike the demon, she is full of resolve. She reaches out her hand, her gesture for wanting to borrow his form and he takes it wordlessly.

“Boys… I know I never planned to live forever… kind of… but now that it seems like I will… I want to actually get to live the life I never got because I had to be princess, then pawn, then queen. Derek can take care of the kingdom now. I think it’s time.”

Luci nodded in agreement, even as the words came out of his own mouth. 

Elfo swallowed, “Y-yeah…” He smiled. “Let’s do it.”

-

Luci was all for just leaving, but Elfo insisted on them saying their goodbyes, however brief. Derek is confused, not understanding why they’re going. He’s never been the brightest bulb though and he has no idea that Bean is still around, in some form. Luci makes sure that Elfo doesn’t blab about it either, the last thing they need is being stuck around Dreamland with him having to play medium for Bean whenever her little brother needs some guidance from beyond the grave.

Derek doesn’t understand but he wishes them well. He probably thinks it’s too hard for them to be here, after Bean’s death. He’s not wrong, but he’s far from being right. Either way, he gives them a generous amount of supplies as well as mounts. They’ll have plenty to live on for a good long while, especially since Elfo is the only one who needs to eat.

The rations go even further because Elfo forgets to eat a lot of the time. The one thing he insisted upon was a covered wagon where he can keep his supplies. He walks off with a number of books from the library and even more of his own notes. Under Elfo’s direction, they travel away from Dreamland. They cart their wagon across the ocean to the city of New Cremorrah. 

They don’t stop there, just obtaining permission to enter the new Great Library of Cremorrah. They’re not allowed to take any books from there, so Elfo painstakingly copies the information he needs into his own documents.

While he’s preoccupied, Bean and Luci get into trouble. Visiting the local bars and pubs proves to be a fun diversion and they get the opportunity to blatantly drink and cheat their way into some funding. Bean in Luci’s body lends him an extra power he hadn’t been in possession of by himself and they use it - and his small stature - to lure drunks into making unwise bets about Luci’s physical prowess. They clean up for a while, then spend the rest of the evening with Bean borrowing Luci’s body to get a taste of some of the local liquor.

Elfo shows up halfway through the latest round of drinks, flushed and panting. He’s run all the way there from the library, which would be a not-insignificant distance even if he were human. With his short elf legs, it must have taken him some time, even at a full run. Luci manages to pull himself together enough to try and listen to what Elfo is saying, but a lot of it is just technical stuff that flies right over a demon’s head.

The important part is that he’s done it. He’s found something. Luci’s not sure what but he’ll know soon enough. He pours Elfo a drink. To celebrate. Elfo takes it, though he nurses it for a good long time. The evening gets a little hazy after that, until Luci wakes the next morning in their bed at the inn, ruffled and spooned against Elfo.

-

“Is Bean here?” Elfo asks while Luci muzzily shovels food he doesn’t actually need into his face in an effort to counteract his hangover. The demon groans, closing his eyes and trying to pinpoint Bean’s position. 

“She’s still in bed.” He says at last, groaning into his cup of milk. He ignores the way Elfo looks at him, scolding. Yeah, yeah, he knows. He drinks too much. He earned every last one of those drinks though, damn it.

Elfo waits for Bean to wake up and as time passes, it starts to really sink in with Luci. Elfo found something. Once he knows, he vibrates with the need for more information, but Elfo is being a pain and refuses to tell him again until Bean’s awake so he doesn’t have to explain it twice.

By the time Bean’s up, Luci’s practically crawling out of his skin. Elfo sits them down. He has papers scattered across the table to illustrate his point.

It’s a lot more complicated to explain than Luci expects, but he gets the gist of it. Bean’s soul is bound to him, he knew this. It means she can’t affect anything except for him. But Elfo did find one possibility. There are still things that Luci himself can manipulate even though they aren’t technically part of his physical body. If Bean can do the same, then perhaps she can be contained within such an object.

Luci has no idea what Elfo is babbling about. 

Then Elfo holds up a lantern and the light casts Luci’s shadow across the far wall and he understands.

-

It’s a little trickier than Elfo’s conjecturing led him to believe, but it still works. Kind of. 

What the talk doesn’t prepare him for is the way it feels to have his own shadow separate itself from him. As Bean’s energy feeds into it, Luci feels an instinctive urge to try and push her away. It’s still part of him, damn it.

Bean needs it more and, frankly, he needs her more than he needs a shadow.

It still feels so strange, when it splits away from him and he looks down to see the ground beneath his feet is empty. In a weird way, it feels like he doesn’t exist anymore. Looking over to where his shadow stretched onto the wall, he sees it still there, but the form of it is blurry, roiling and writhing. It looks vaguely human from time to time. This might take a while…

Still, it feels good to hug her again, even if she is mostly a blob of shadowy substance given form by the spirit of a dead ex-queen.

-

Bean takes a solid form more, day by day. They find the limitations of it, that she cannot go anywhere a shadow cannot. Even as she shapes herself into her human form and finds she can touch objects and people - but especially her partners - she is still a little indistinct, fuzzy around the edges. Touching Bean is like touching solid smoke.

But they take what they can get.

It’s good to have her back.

-

For a while, they achieve bliss together. It’s like something out of a story. Bean doesn’t have to stand as leader of the alliance and for once in her life - death? - she gets to just do what she wants. And her desire to learn and experience things has always been strong, just stifled by the circumstances of her life and her station.

She turns out to be a bigger book nerd than Luci expects, something that she shares with Elfo. The two of them don’t match up in their tastes, though, and it means Luci is constantly rolling his eyes as they debate on the relative literary merits of particular authors. Luci would point out that all the authors they’re mentioning have gone to Hell anyway, but they’ll probably gang up on him if he does, so he wises up and shuts his trap.

He doesn’t really mind. He gets plenty of time to spend with Bean, drinking and gambling just for the fun of it. She likes horseback riding and Luci enjoys clinging to the back of her saddle or climbing up to watch the world from the highest vantage point on Bean’s body. 

Bean still has a little trouble maintaining form and he falls through her every once in a while, but it’s something that’ll come with time.

It’s not the life he would ever have pictured for himself, but honestly… it’s just about perfect.

-

It’s all been going so well. Bean is getting a better grasp of her new shadow form. They don’t have to worry about stupid kingdom politics or obligations. They barely have to worry about physical needs like food, other than having enough on hand for Elfo to eat. They’re living the good life together, the three of them. Somewhere in the back of his mind, though, Luci knows he’s just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

And it does. Or rather… Elfo does.

Luci doesn’t expect it. One moment, they’re walking along a forest path, debating whether to enter the upcoming village and hit the bar… the next moment, they’re several steps ahead and there’s the soft thud of a small body hitting the ground behind them.

As Luci struggles to lift Elfo’s surprisingly heavy little body, Bean has enough control over her mass to take the weight from him.

She can take the elf’s weight out of his grasp, but nothing she can do will take away the weight on his mind as they hurry through the woods. Every step drives it home further. Something is wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

-

Luci’s pissed. He knows he shouldn’t be and it makes him that much more angry.

Elfo is tucked away in a rough bed at the cruddy excuse this town has for an inn and the doctor is talking with Bean. She’s gotten convincing enough with her facsimile of a physical form that no one blinks at addressing her. They don’t seem to notice that her voice doesn’t exactly come from her mouth or that she blurs a little around the edges from time to time.

By the time the quack leaves, they’ve just paid him a hefty amount to confirm what Luci already knows. Their worst fear.

Elfo is dying.

It’s a truth that Luci has known is inevitable and has pushed to the back of his mind constantly and fiercely. He wants to deny it. He has spent a lot of time and effort to deny it. And now he can’t. He’s angrier than he knows how to deal with. While Elfo lies in the shitty inn bed, Luci stalks through the town. He nips from the flask he took from Bean and then drunkenly climbs to the top of someone’s fence to screech bloody murder at the unfeeling moon.

In the morning, he wakes at the foot of Elfo’s bed, to small green hands petting soothingly in his fur.

“It’s okay, Luci.” Elfo says, trying to be reassuring. Luci doesn’t want to be reassured. He doesn’t want Elfo to make peace with the idea that he’s going to die. He wants the elf to fight, damn it. They can fight this. They can find a way.

Luci doesn’t know what way… not just yet. But one exists and they’ll find it if it kills them. And since neither he nor Bean can actually die, well… that just makes finding a way to save Elfo the easier choice, doesn’t it?

-

“What if there is another option…. Instead of a cure?” It’s Bean who muses about it. Elfo is asleep but Bean has been perusing his papers. He’s been a busy elf, keeping his books. Luci doesn’t read often but Bean has taken to practicing touching solid objects by using the things in their packs and Elfo has lots of books.

“What do you mean?” Luci says, feeling a spark of hope but trying to quash it. Researching primitive human medicine hasn’t turned up many possibilities yet, but surely there’s other options.

“I mean… this.” Bean holds the book open and Luci recognizes it right away. The Eternity Pendant. The power of it was undeniable. They’d used it to resurrect a goddamn God. Surely it could save the life of one half-elf? There was only one problem with the theory.

“It broke.” He says flatly, reminding himself that it had been a long shot to even consider. 

“Yeah,” Bean says, a little too reasonable. “But the pieces are still locked in the vault at Dreamland Castle…”

Oh. Oh yes, he sees now.

Is it possible? Could it be possible? He doesn’t know and yet he dares to let a spark of hope settle in his chest. Find the Eternity Pendant pieces… repair it. It has to be reparable… someone created it once. Cure Elfo.

Maybe it would make him immortal… maybe they can all be together.

It’s a faint hope, but he’ll take it.

-

Retrieving the pieces of the pendant is both easier and harder than he expects. Derek’s daughter, Celia, is in charge of the kingdom now, her father retired. She knows Luci, still calls him Uncle Kitty, but she seems a bit uncertain about handing over the remains of a powerful magical artifact.

It’s not until she sees Elfo, sees how bad he’s gotten, that she relents. He was closer to Derek’s children than Luci and he can see in her eyes how fond she still is of her aunt’s elf partner.

She hands over the pieces and Luci thanks her. Profusely. Without any ulterior motive or sarcasm.

They’re closer now. Much closer.

Sadly, it’s as close as they’ll ever come.

-

“Are you sure you’re not immortal?” Luci asks, suspicion in his voice and his gaze. Gwen looks exactly the same as she had the last time they’d seen her… and the first time they’d seen her. Time has not chosen to set its claws into her.

“Of course I’m not.” The witch says, waving a dismissive hand. “And it’s just as well. Even if I had wanted immortality, it wouldn’t last now.” She serves them lightly cursed cookies with their coffee and Luci eats them because what does he really have to fear? She sits, sipping thoughtfully at her drink before she sets it aside. There’s something gentle in her gaze, a look that she’s never shown Luci before. He feels a slight chill down his spine as she looks them over.

She knows, he thinks. They haven’t told her but she knows.

“You’re seeking a way to repair the Eternity Pendant.” She says, without preamble. Luci flinches at how quickly she sees through them. 

“We need it,” Bean says. She can touch things, lift them. Luci isn’t sure if she can actually taste the drink she brings to her lips or if it’s just a formality she still performs. 

Gwen’s gaze is sharp then, for a second, piercing. She rises to her feet, moving to stand in front of Elfo. The elf looks up at her, their eyes lock on each other and she drops to one creaky knee in front of him, her hand moving to press against his cheek. Luci can see him tremble and he has to fight the urge to confront Gwen, to come to Elfo’s rescue. After a few seconds, she lets out a soft shiver of a breath and draws back. “I see,” she says. Nothing more.

Bean and Luci share a look but neither of them is willing to voice the words they know must be said.

It’s Elfo who says it. “I’m going to die.” 

Luci would have expected fear, what he gets is simple fact.

“Yes.” The witch says. She doesn’t bother to sugarcoat it. Her hand brushes his forehead, pets through the straggly strands of his hair. “But you’re in good company, child. All people die.” Her gaze goes to Luci and Bean and the look in her eyes is pity. “Almost all people die….”

She moves to sit, wearily. “I cannot help you.” She says and Luci leaps to his feet, knocking his coffee cup to the floor. The dark stain spreads across the floor, accusing.

“The Eternity Pendant can cure him.” Luci growls, unable to hold back. “He shouldn’t be dying!” He’s half dragon… he’s half elf… damn it, Elfo might not live forever but they should get to have him a hell of a lot longer than a simple human lifetime. “We just need to find a way to put the pieces back together…”. He has no idea how to do it, but it has to be possible. Someone made it once.

Gwen shakes her head. “When you purified the dark soul through the pendant’s core, you shattered more than the container. The magic it held is gone.”

“How can you know that?” Luci asks. He wants to scream it but the words come out small and tight. She can’t know. There’s no way… she’s just guessing… she…

“Malfus is dead.”

It only takes three words to shatter all his hopes. Bean’s hand brushes his shoulder and he shakes. He reaches up to rest his paw against her fingers, swallowing hard.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Bean says, ever tactful.

“Don’t be.” Gwen says. “He’s free, at last.” She moves again, back to her own seat. Her steps totter and finally she looks her age. Old. So old. “Immortality is a curse.” She says, smiling softly as she settles back into her chair. “A life without end starts to lose its meaning. Don’t be sad for your loss.” Luci curses her silently, how casually she speaks of that loss. Elfo isn’t even dead yet, damn it. Maybe she reads his mind because she looks at him, her milky eyes sober. “I feel your anger. I understand.”

She sighs. “Most people will never have what you have. The bond you share is something unique… and yet you have been fortunate enough to have it twice. Do not squander what you have with anger. Cherish it for as long as it’s yours to hold.”

Elfo gets to his feet then. “Thank you.” He speaks to her and Luci wants to tell him to sit down and shut up, he’s not _done_ yet, god damn it. But Elfo doesn’t give him that opportunity. He’s all smiles and gently herding his partners out the door to leave the witch to her solitude.

As they get far enough away, Luci rounds on him. “Why did you do that? We were getting somewhere, I know it.” He looks at Bean for support. “Tell him!” She looks away though and Luci feels his guts sink.

He wants to lash out, as Elfo’s hand brushes his own, curls tight together as their fingers twine. Instead he holds on because it’s all he can do. 

He holds on to the bitter end.

-

He still looks for a solution, a way to repair the pendant. But between Elfo’s research and what he learns during their travels, it seems like the witch was telling the truth. The magic is gone and with it, the last hope he has of saving their partner.

Elfo’s slowing steadily. When Luci looks, the iron scar on his back has spread, turning his skin mottled and dark. It looks like claws scraping up and down his spine. It gets harder for Elfo to lie down without pain. Bean holds him when they sleep, managing to keep her shape longer and longer. Her growing skill is the good part. Everything else is not.

Luci finally gives up on trying to find a way to repair the vial. After a night of long research leads to him sleeping through most of a day when he might have otherwise been spending with Bean and Elfo, he realizes what Gwen meant. They’ll lose Elfo… there’s no helping it. But Luci isn’t going to let go of him before he’s gone.

He puts the book aside and spends his time with his partners. Bean strokes his ears and Elfo’s hair as they sit beside the fire and talk about their dreams, like the first night they’d met. It was a lifetime ago.

“I love you.” Elfo says to him, the two of them settled, not at Bean’s feet, but alongside her. He touches Bean’s hand and smiles. “I love you both. I don’t regret anything.

“I’d do it all again.”

-

Luci’s not sure what wakes him. The campfire has burned out, leaving only a few embers. It’s just before dawn… he can see the hints of ephemeral blue starting to touch the sky. Colours start to spread from there, licking across the horizon like fire. It’s beautiful. He’s not sure he’s seen anything so beautiful. It’s somehow soothing.

He shifts, moves to brush his tail along Bean’s arm, feeling the slight fuzziness of her form, a bit indistinct as she sleeps. His paw moves to touch Elfo, brushing across the back of his hand. 

He freezes.

For a few minutes, he sits there, staring into the brilliant pre-dawn sky and he wonders if he can see a brief glimpse of Heaven from here. 

...If he looks hard enough… just maybe…

-

They bury Elfo on the mountain. It’s a spot untouched by human hands, open to the wind and the sun and the starlight. A place where the little elf who once dreamed of the wide world will never know borders again.

-

As they cross down into the valley, both of them are quieter than before. It feels unreal, all of it. It refuses to sink in until it finally does. They reach the bank of a stream and Bean sinks to her knees. She doesn’t need to drink, she’s not trying to. She just sits there for a long while, her head drooped. Luci can feel her pain and knows she can feel his in return, like a nasty feedback loop. She can’t cry… not even as much as Luci - whose tears dissolve away into steam - can.

“I can’t believe he’s gone.” She says, finally. Luci understands the many other things she can’t say. It felt eternal. If he thinks back on his life, it feels like it only really starts where Bean and Elfo enter it. He doesn’t understand life without Elfo. It’s the same despair he felt when Bean died, but he’s not getting Elfo back. Elfo isn’t bound to his soul. In the end, their bond is truly fleeting.

“I’ve done my best not to think about it.” Luci admits, a shameful truth. As much as he’s known it’s inevitable, an eternity without his mortal companions was always too much for him to contemplate. Now it’s a reality he’s facing.

At least he has Bean, he tells himself. At least he’ll always have Bean.

-

They see so much of the world.

As much as Elfo had tried not to hold them back, it had been virtually impossible for him to keep up with his failing body. Now that he’s - dead. Beyond their reach. Gone - not around anymore, the possibilities are truly limitless. Bean’s shadow form is only limited by the absence of light, so they can traverse deserts, cross oceans, go virtually anywhere with impunity.

There are people out there who don’t believe in demons. People with strange looks and strange ways. It’s fascinating. Sometimes when they’re doing something new, something unique, seeing someplace that no Dreamlander or no elf has seen before, he almost feels like Elfo is there. 

This was Elfo’s dream. They’re living it for him. The thought brings Luci some measure of comfort.

-

Years pass. Luci’s not sure how many. He doesn’t age and neither does Bean. The two of them live in a kind of timeless haze of experiences. Every day is a new adventure.

But for the rest of the world, time still has its tenacious grip. A message arrives for him, in a village they’ve been staying at for a while. Luci wonders how they even knew he was there. It’s from Celia. She’s been queen for a while now… how long Luci isn’t sure. As he reads the letter, he notices Bean’s gaze on him.

By the time he reaches the end, he feels an overwhelming urge to hide the document from Bean, but she’s already seen him with it. There’s nothing for it. He silently hands it over.

He’s dead. Prince Derek. King Derek. Ex-King Derek. Bean’s baby brother.

‘Father died peacefully in his sleep’ the letter informs them kindly. ‘We’ll be holding services for him. As a family member, you are welcome to attend.’

Bean makes a small sound in her throat, but when he looks at her, she seems composed enough. She’s taking it well.

“We’re going.” She says when Luci asks. There’s no room in her words for argument, so Luci doesn’t even try.

They’re going, she says. They’re going and that’s that.

So they go.

-

It’s a modest affair for a man who once stood as High King of the allied kingdoms. Bean elects to piggyback in Luci’s body, just one more time. She says she doesn’t want to alarm her niece.

Luci is surprised when he sees Celia. She greets him as Uncle Kitty, but the words are different coming from a woman easily into her fifties. Has it really been so long? 

He feels something odd from Bean, who is inside his form. She doesn’t make an effort to take charge the way she had during Zog’s funeral, just hanging back quietly in his head, but he can just _tell_ something is on her mind.

When Celia thanks him for showing up, he feels it again. Whatever is troubling Bean, it’s not something she can hide when she’s literally inside his head. He doesn’t ask while they’re at the funeral, or even the short amount of time afterward. It would look awkward for him to ask himself questions.

-

“I’m just tired.” She says when he asks her. The two of them are alone in Bean’s old room in the castle. It’s so strange to see it now. It feels like an eternity ago, the last time they were here. It was right after Bean had come back to him. Luci has a weird flash of a thought that if he goes to sleep, maybe Elfo will be there when he wakes up. It’s the first time he’s let himself think of their missing partner in a long time. It makes him ache, deep down to his black core.

He doesn’t believe Bean. As a shadow, there is no way she can get physically tired or worn down. Technically neither of them need to sleep and it’s simply a behaviour they indulge in because of old habit.

“That’s bullshit.” He says, angry for no reason he can understand. He’s feeling raw himself; the place makes him think of old times, makes him think of when they were together, the three of them. It reminds him that they’re incomplete. “You expect me to believe that? We’ve known each other how long?”

Luci’s not even sure of the answer to that question because he doesn’t know how many years have really passed. How old was Derek when he and Bean met? Like 9? Or maybe he was 17 or 18? He doesn’t even understand how human aging works so he can’t be blamed for not knowing. It’s been a long time though. 

Bean lets out a breath she doesn’t need and bites at her lip. Luci waits.

“I _am_ tired.” she says, but this time there’s obviously more coming. She continues after a pause. “I didn’t think it’d be like this. I know what Malfus told us-” Way back in the cave when they’d been looking for Elfo the first time he’d gone missing. “But I didn’t think about how people… how they go away. Everyone I knew growing up is gone. My dad. Bunty. Oona… Even Derek now and he was my little brother.” She hesitates, her voice cracking for a second. “How long will it be before there’s no one left that I know?”

“There’s me.” Luci says. He thinks that a few years ago, back before Elfo’s death, he would have argued with more vehemence. He would have been offended at the implication that he wasn’t enough for Bean. But now he understands, he’s in the same boat as Bean. He’s going to live forever and there will be a time when there’s no point in making any sort of connection with mortals. It just means subjecting yourself to the pain of losing them.

Bean looks at him and her eyes are dull, even as a smile touches her lips. “Luci…” She swallows. “I love you...” Is there more? It seems like she wants to say more but she doesn’t. She just leaves it there, with a declaration of love that feels genuine but more despairing than happy.

They leave the castle as soon as daylight comes. It’s the last time they come back to Dreamland.

-

Bean’s not happy. Now that he knows, he can’t help but see it in everything they do. It occurs to Luci, belatedly, that maybe mortals were never meant for this kind of existence. Maybe taking death out of the picture takes away something vital that defines them. Demons and other immortal creatures are - in Luci’s experience - a generally grim lot. Demons in particular only find any amusement from the suffering of the humans and other mortal creatures in their tender care. 

He hadn’t start to experience real happiness himself until he’d come to earth. 

What if Bean gets worn down more and more? What if she loses that spark that makes her human… the ability to hope and grow and change?

Is it even worth it then?

He doesn’t know. But he knows it can’t go on like this.

-

Luci knows what he has to do. It’s something he’s known for a while but he’s been too selfish to seriously consider it. Bean shouldn’t be here. She’s mortal, she has to live and die as a mortal. She was never meant for this kind of existence at all. The fact that she’s still here is an anomaly, one that he’s only perpetuated by his need to keep one of his mortals with him.

He would have kept them both, if he could have. He’s not fooling himself into thinking he is - or has ever been - a good person. He’s a demon. He looks out for his own self-interest.

But even he has his limits.

Watching Bean suffer alongside him for all eternity is apparently one of said limits.

It’s not something he can live with… especially not the entirety of an immortal lifetime… So he has to do something. His gut twists with the knowledge. 

He has to set Bean free.

He just doesn’t know how.

-

They return to the mountain. Luci doesn’t tell Bean why because he knows that she’s enough of a sappy flesh creature - even after death, with no flesh attached - to try to dissuade him from what he’s trying to do. He wouldn’t blame her because what he wants to do is objectively stupid and kind of self-sacrificing. No reasonable demon would even consider it.

But that’s a bridge he crossed a long time ago, when he’d marched into Hell with his heart on his sleeve, determined to save the only two beings in existence that he actually gave a damn about.

When they’d buried Elfo, they’d left his books and notes there. They’d had no idea what to do with them but they’d been important to the elf and simply destroying the work that had taken Elfo years to compile by hand was something that they couldn’t do. 

In the hollowed-out caves beneath the simple stone marker of Elfo’s grave, Luci pulls out the books and scrolls. He has some bullshit excuse about wanting to bring them back to the Great Library of Cremorrah. So Elfo will be _remembered_. It’s a sentimental excuse but he feels it’s one that Bean will believe. She helps him load the books and scrolls onto a cart, not questioning his reasons.

They begin a long trip to New Cremorrah, their travel speed hindered by the bulk of the items in tow. They’re forced to charter a ship to make the crossing. In the moments when Bean isn’t around or when she’s in some shadow-equivalent of sleep, Luci reads. He goes through everything Elfo has written down and finds that the elf was more thorough than he’d expected. There’s so much here, about magic, about the pendant - and as Luci reads his notes on the Eternity Pendant, he realizes that Elfo must have known their plan to save him would never work… it makes him wish Elfo was here so he could smack the elf good and hard - even a fair amount about demons… Things that must have come from Big Jo’s cultish clan of demon eradicators.

Nothing spoke about breaking a demonic binding like this. To be fair, before Luci, there had never been a need to break a binding since it was broken automatically upon the death of the mortal. But surely someone, somewhere must have had cause to try and break a demon bond while saving the life of the mortal? In centuries of tireless demon hunting, there had to be some other option.

And wasn’t it ironic that he, a demon, should be relying on the works of those who sought to eradicate him and all he stood for? He thought so.

There is nothing specific to his situation so he keeps looking. When they arrive in New Cremorrah, he turns over Elfo’s work. They accept it, gladly. Luci expects to be more upset over it, because it had belonged to Elfo, because it was all that he and Bean had left of someone who had been an integral part of their lives. All he feels is a dull sort of relief. Some part of Elfo will always exist in the form of these texts, even if they’re copied and rewritten over the years. 

Besides… he knows what he has to do. On some level, he’s always known.

He’s just been desperate to find some other solution, some other way. As they leave the library, he looks over at Bean, who seems pleased at the way the library’s caretakers have shown such appreciation of their dead partner’s work. Bean is oblivious to his thoughts, surely. He refuses to voice them. It’s rare for Bean to be happy nowadays. He doesn’t want to spoil it for her.

He loves her.

With luck, he’ll never have to tell her what he has to do for her. With luck, she’ll understand, after. Is it selfish? To want to avoid the inevitable confrontation that would come if he told her the truth? Maybe. But he wants this last little bit of selfishness.

-

She never asks where they’re going.

They’ve always traveled freely and there have been many times where neither of them knew or cared where they’d go. Luci tries to keep the trip casual, like most of their idle explorations. He’s not sure if Bean recognizes the terrain. It’s been a long while since they’ve been out this way.

Maybe she thinks they’re going to Dreamland. But he thinks she’d say something, if so. It’s been a few years since Derek’s funeral, though he’s not sure how many. He wonders if Celia is still alive. He doubts she’s still queen, even if she is. Humans - and human-like types are so fragile.

There was a road here, once. It doesn’t exist anymore, except in the slight ruts in the hard-packed earth. The grass mostly covers everything and it’s more distant memory that leads Luci’s steps as he turns away from the path that would lead to Dreamland. 

The grass starts to give way to more barren terrain, even as Luci feels his own nerves starting to fray. 

This is crazy. What he’s doing. Crazy.

-

It’s him.

That’s what he learned, reading Elfo’s books and scrolls. He’s pored over them. Every last word. But it’s a conclusion he can’t escape. More than that, it’s a conclusion he already knew.

He’s dragging Bean along in the mortal world because of his own inability to leave the earthly plane. He doesn’t know of any easy way to break the bond because, for all intents and purposes, he _is_ the bond. He’s the focal point. Bean’s soul has been severed from her mortal body, which would have long decayed by now even if they hadn’t burned it on her funeral pyre which means the only remaining point of connection that Bean has is with him.

But he’s immortal. It’s not like he’ll ever _die_. The ‘mercy’ that he’d been shown in retaining a sliver of his demon powers after leaving Hell has been more of a curse.

But if he can’t _die_ in the human sense, Bean can’t either.

But Bean _has_ to die.

So Luci has to die.

-

Everything can be destroyed. There’s always some way. On a purely logical level it makes sense, but even more than that he’s seen the evidence of it with his own eyes. If something can kill a dark deity of nearly limitless power, then destroying a mere level 0 subdemon should be no issue.

Thanks to Big Jo and the efforts of his demon-hunting cult, Luci even knows how it can be done. It doesn’t mean that there isn’t a part of him that isn’t already dreading what he knows has to happen. The closer they get to their destination, the more he starts to feel the panic setting in. He’s not sure if it’s that he’s been around mortals too long, or if demons actually have as strong a sense of preservation as humans do, but he feels the urge to stop while he can. To run, while he can.

Despite all of Luci’s efforts to hide his feelings, Bean notices. He can see the worry in her eyes. 

Luci hopes for just a little more time before he has to explain himself, but Bean stops in her tracks and refuses to budge, even when Luci goes on several steps more. He finally pauses, his tail swishing, but he doesn’t turn to look behind him. He can already picture her expression… he doesn’t need to see it for himself.

“Where are we going, Luci?” There’s steel in her voice, something he hasn’t heard her use since she’d been High Queen, and his ears fold. It’s a question, but it’s really not. It’s a command.

He knows he can’t lie. So he doesn’t.

“We’re going to the volcano.” He says. He doesn’t have to specify which, even if there are probably hundreds of volcanoes throughout the world, there’s only one that matters. They’ve been there before.

If Bean is surprised, she doesn’t show it. She plants her feet. They’re so close to Luci’s destination that he can almost feel the heat of it. The grass is gone and the terrain is becoming more rocky, more steep. There’s still the worn tracks of wagon wheels in the rising stone. “Why?” She asks. Just one word but it undoes him.

His fur bristles, his paws clenching into fists. “Because.” He spats out the word, a guttural cough. “It’s the only way.”

He knows she knows and she confirms it. “You’re not going to kill yourself. What the hell are you thinking?!” Her voice rises, then breaks on that word. She’s angry, accusing, but more than that, she’s hurt. He doesn’t want to hurt her but it was inevitable that he would. So many decades in the mortal realm and at the end of it all, he’s still a demon.

They stare at each other. The distance between them is minimal but it feels like an immense void. There’s no way to cross, no middle ground that they can reach. Bean’s never going to be happy with this choice, he knows that. Perhaps the most he can ask for is some measure of understanding.

His ears fold back, his long tail stroking against the rough ground in tiny unconscious motions as he tries to yell back something. Anything. All that comes out is a low chuff of pain. Luci draws a breath, trying to remind himself that he doesn’t care about what kind of trouble he’s causing for Bean. It’s for her own good, damn it. Why can’t she just let him do this?

His head drops, teeth gritted as his claws bite into the pads of his paws. “I didn’t just _decide_ this, okay.” He wants to yell it but it comes out in a tight whisper. It takes all the control in his minuscule body to even say the words. “You shouldn’t even be here. This stupid bonding your soul… It should have meant you were stuck with me until the end of your pathetic mortal life. But-” He raises his head, looking at Bean. He has no idea what his expression looks like but there’s something in her eyes that tears at him. What is she seeing? “Instead you’re _stuck_ … with me.”

“Luci…” Bean takes a step forward and this time Luci doesn’t flinch. 

“It’s the only way… You weren’t meant to be forever.” _We weren’t meant to be forever..._ “And...even if there was another way, I…”

God damn, he was selfish, wasn’t he? Selfish for thinking it. It’s for Bean’s good, to be sure, but also for his own. He can’t stand the idea of Bean trapped here, of her losing her humanity over the endless eons of a demon’s immortal life.

She might love him now, but how can it last?

And even if it can… if there’s some small likelihood that they can be together, that they can somehow be some amount of happy in this eternal damnation on earth… it doesn’t change the fact that a vital piece of themselves is missing.

Luci can’t stand the thought of half of everything that matters to him could grow cold toward him… even hate him. And it’s a future he fears far more than whatever fleeting pain might await him.

“I wouldn’t want to be here. Not alone…” He breathes the words. His vision is clouded by wisps of steam but he doesn’t try to swipe the tears from his cheeks. 

“You’re not alone…” Bean says, but he can hear the uncertainty in her voice. Maybe she’s felt it too. She’s been so restless and miserable of late and they both know it can’t last. She sighs, hands raised to her face and her shoulders shaking, but she can’t cry. She’s not even human anymore, just Luci’s sad shadow.

Her arms wrap around him, crushing him tight until he feels he might fall apart at the seams. She kisses him, tenderly, before she lets him slide from her grip.

Luci’s legs are shaky. His body feels weak and he’s not sure if it’s the wild surge of emotion from his confrontation with Bean or just fear finally moving in to grab him by the throat now that there’s nothing left between himself and a fate similar to - but also completely unlike - death.

He’s about to ask her something selfish. He hates himself for it.

“Walk with me?” He doesn’t look at her but he holds out one dark paw, as trusting as a child.

Her fingers are cool, not quite solid as they curl against his. Their hands are entangled, pressed palm to palm so tightly that it feels like they’re trying to fuse to one another. He closes his eyes but behind his lids he can still see her small, sad, smile.

“Always…”

-

The sun has gone down as they start their ascent, so Luci has no way to judge the passage of time. He doesn’t know how long it takes to climb. It could have been hours. Days. An Eternity, even. But then they’re at the top and it feels like no time at all. 

Luci pulls his paw away from Bean’s, at last. He’s not going to ask her to make this last trip with him. He’s his own demon. Here at the end of everything, he can stand alone.

Bean’s eyes are on him as he makes his way toward the edge, peering down. It’s an inferno befitting an ex-demon. Bubbling pools of molten rock roil far below, letting off acrid clouds of smoke and brimstone. Other demons have been destroyed here, at the hands of Big Jo and his clan. A lifetime ago, Bean and Elfo had rescued him from just such a grisly demise.

He’s returning the favour now. Saving Bean...

Luci raises his head. He can’t help but smile at the coincidence. There’s blue touching the edges of the horizon, the promise of a sunrise to come. Life will go on, as it always does. It’s the other side of the mortal coin. Life and Death in an endless cycle and he’s finally part of it.

His eyes slide closed and he takes a slow breath.

His shaking paws steady. Now that he’s confronted with the certainty of death - or some equivalent - he forgets why he was afraid. He only remembers Bean’s smile, Elfo’s small hand on his arm. Their warmth. Their love.

Damned he might be. Damned lucky.

No other demon could ever be so blessed.

As he takes that last step forward, above the Hellscape on earth, he sees the sunlight touch the sky. It’s like a glimpse of Heaven.

-

He falls forever.

It’s a feeling like weightlessness. Like he’s caught in the tail end of a dream that he’s about to wake up from. 

Then he hits the bottom and it’s a pain so blinding that he can’t even register it. It’s so intense that it feels distant somehow. As much as it hurts, counting the seconds of agony before it’s all over, there’s another pain… a smaller one.

Bean’s soul snaps away from his own, at last. Bound for Heaven or Hell - or somewhere else - he doesn’t know, but he feels a moment of triumph. He hopes she’ll be with Elfo. He hopes they have an eternity in Heavenly Bliss for all they’ve done and all they’ve suffered.

He hopes they remember him.

He knows he’ll always remember them.

-

And then he doesn’t anymore.

-

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Luci feels like he should hurt. It’s dark. Something has happened but he’s not sure what... Elfo is probably going to call him for late breakfast soon and he’ll grumble but he’ll be secretly delighted that he manages to get the elf to cook him his own breakfast instead of having to eat with the rest of them. His ear flicks slightly, the world a warm, haziness around him.

Is someone calling him? He hears a voice. Is it Elfo?

“Luci.” No. Not Elfo. But familiar somehow, though he can’t place where he knows it from. “Luci.” Insistent.

“G’way…” he mumbles, rolling onto his side. The blankets are so soft…

There’s a soft chuckle. Warm. Dare he say… affectionate?

“Do you really want to sleep away Eternity, my son?” Son? Does he have a father he didn’t know about? But no… Demons don’t _have_ parents… they’re born out of shadows and latent purpose. Luci opens his eyes. Slowly.

“Who are you-” he begins, but then he just knows. The gleaming figure before him radiates light, goodness. It’s the opposite of his counterpart in Hell. 

Dear god… is this...God?

It just doesn’t add up. Why would God be here? He’s a demon, so if there truly is something like an afterlife waiting for him, he would expect it to involve Hellfire and Brimstone and evil dark deities bent on revenging themselves upon him for his actions against his own kind. He thinks for a second that maybe it’s not real at all, maybe it’s just a figment of something. His overactive mind in the moment before he’s destroyed, playing out all these wild possibilities.

“I think you know who I am.” He can feel the smile, even though the being in front of him has no face, only a holy radiance.

“I think I know too, but it’s not possible.” Luci snorts. “I mean, last I checked I wasn’t sure a guy like me would be welcome anywhere you’d hang out.” His tail swishes and knocks free a wisp of cloud. His mind really has gone all out with this hallucination thing, hasn’t it?

“Big talk.” God says, a voice like a warm rumble of thunder. “I think you underestimate yourself, Luci.”

His ears go sideways at the use of his name. It can’t be real. It’s not possible. It’s the mantra trying to repeat itself in his head. In just a second this will all be gone and so will he. He refuses to feel some kind of Hope like a weak, sentimental mortal. And yet…

He jolts as a huge hand slides beneath the cloud he’s sitting on, rising through it, and then he’s on a warm large palm and he can feel that same warmth radiating through him. It’s a sensation a little like the feeling he would get in his chest sometimes when looking at his mortals, or during the long evenings with the three of them curled together on Bean’s bed. Luci looks up at the deity’s face and he knows he shouldn’t, but he still _hopes_ for some reason.

“Why do you doubt what you know to be true?” God asks, and Luci curls his tail around himself.

“Because it can’t be true. I’m a demon. Demons don’t wind up… here.” Everyone knows this. It doesn’t even bear repeating, does it?

“Are you?” And Luci wonders. He’s defined himself by being a demon, but in the functional sense of the word, he hasn’t been one in several decades of mortal time. He gave up more than his place in Hell when he accepted being banished to earth over the loss of his mortal companions. _Evil is as Evil does_ was the saying. Basically, to be evil you have to constantly prove you are by doing evil things. Luci can barely recall the last truly evil thing he’s done. But that doesn’t make him somehow not a demon. It’s his nature.

“What you did there. Why did you do it?”

So many excuses pop to mind, so many reasons that are all shallow things. They sit on the tip of his tongue. He did it because he was bored of his own existence on earth, he did it because of some masochistic need to punish himself. He did it because why the Hell not?

But the words that come out are simply the truth. “I wanted Bean to be free.”

The hand holding him curls slightly, alarmingly. One large fingertip brushes against Luci’s cheek. It’s a strange sensation. His cheeks are wet.

There’s no steam.

Holy hells, he’s crying and the tears don’t even have the decency to burn away.

“It was a selfless act.” The voice envelops him in calm and understanding. “No demon was ever made who could give of themself for the good of someone else. Luci-” He looks up at the sound of his own name, that warm feeling fluttering in his chest. “Even during your time as a demon, you loved and were loved in return. You deserve this.”

He’s not sure he believes it. But he has no other choice.

-

Luci feels their presence before he sees them. His entire body uncoils as he pushes himself to his feet, looking around, desperate to pinpoint the source of that familiar feeling. He’s only half turned when a form plows into him at full speed.

He lands with a not-insignificant weight atop him. “Luci!” For a few wild seconds, he’s expecting Elfo to deck him, possibly multiple times, but instead green arms wrap around him and he’s engulfed in an embrace that smells like warm sugar cookies. His own claws curl into the white fabric of Elfo’s heavenly robe and hold on tight. When he draws back enough to let Luci breathe, he’s either sobbing or laughing.

The demon just smiles, pressing palms to Elfo’s green cheeks. His voice is a rasp of relief. “I’ve missed you, you son of a bitch.” It’s been so long. Luci runs his paws over Elfo’s face, his neck, the curve of his ears, and the memories flood back. He doesn’t look sick here. When Luci’s paws slide beneath his white shirt, up to the small of his back, he finds only smooth unmarred skin.

“I think I should be jealous.” They both looked up at the sound of Bean’s voice. She’s standing there, more casual than Luci would ever expect someone in a heavenly robe to be. “But I… did kind of the same thing.” She drops to her knees, drawing them both into her embrace.

This is it. This is the feeling he’s been looking for. They’re here. They’re home.

-

Their reunion is paused by the sound of a deity clearing their throat. It takes a bit of effort for Luci to somehow turn enough to look in God’s direction without disentangling himself from his companions. His tail moves to wrap around Elfo’s waist, his claws clinging in the fabric of Bean’s sleeve in as casual a manner as he can manage.

“I hate to interrupt your reunion, children.” God says, and Luci bites back the urge to snap back ‘then don’t’. He’s not sure how God would react to him falling back into asshole demon habits.

It’s Elfo who snaps out what he’s thinking. “But you are interrupting!” Luci waits for him to get smited - smote? - but it doesn’t happen. God only laughs and reaches down a hand to rumple Elfo’s hat.

“I know.” God says, amiably. “But now that you’re all here, I needed to thank you.” God sits in front of them, cross-legged. Somehow graceful for such a massive being. “Without the three of you… well…”

Oh yes. It’s been so long that Luci’d almost forgotten how they’d saved not only the mortal plane, but presumably the immortal one as well. Just a small chapter of their lives, by now. But considering their actions had probably saved God’s ass, it made sense that they’d be grateful. Somehow being thanked by a nearly all-powerful immortal being was satisfying in ways he couldn’t have anticipated.

“You brought balance back. To the world, and to us. We owe you a great debt.”

The three of them look at each other. Luci reads the wonderment in Bean’s eyes and remembers her back when they first met and she was a self-destructive teenager with no purpose in life. Elfo’s face is lit up, like a kid in a candy shop, and Luci also remembers the first time he saw that bright smile on Elfo’s face and had the urge to gag. Damn, he loves them.

There’s a pause, but Luci knows, somehow, that there’s more.

So he’s not surprised when God continues at last. “You deserve the right to rest now. You can spend all eternity in Heaven. Together, of course.” There’s something else coming, and God seems to be hedging about it.

“Or?” Luci finally supplies, his patience running out. He’s not ready to get jerked around. If there’s some condition, he wants to know it.

God is looking at him, he can tell despite the lack of any visible eyes. “Or-” God says, softly, “I need someone on Earth. To watch over things. This whole business with-” God doesn’t say the name and Luci wonders if it’s because God can’t bear to, or because of some fear of bringing him back. “The mortal world is a mess… I’ve relied on a policy of non-interference for a long time, but… after seeing what the three of you have accomplished together, I think perhaps there are others who could use help as well.”

What they had accomplished? Surely God wasn’t speaking just about their defeat of the dark entity? It had been impressive, but not something they’d accomplished alone.

Or was that the point?

They’d spent all their lives alone, without anyone to help or give support. No one to push them to be better. When they met each other, they’d found they could give and receive. It wasn’t just about taking as much as you could get. They’d become more, together, than any one of them could be alone.

Maybe there _were_ other mortals who could improve with a little help. If a drunk layabout, a fussy dumbass and a literal demon could become better people with just a bit of a push, maybe a lot of folks could.

“You want us to go back to Earth?” Bean asks. Luci can feel her fingers curling into the fur along his back and her body tensing slightly. “Come back to life, you mean?”

“Not exactly.” God rests their arms on their knees. “That’s not possible. You’ll have to start over new. New bodies. New lives. Take everything from the top.” God taps their fingers against their leg. “You may not be the same gender or even the same species as before.” There’s a pause, as if God is waiting to drop the bad news on them. So far it sounds good, awkwardness aside, but there’s always a catch with these things. “You won’t remember everything. At least, not to begin with.”

It’s a struggle to digest what that means. It’s exciting, on one hand. If what God is saying is true, then it means Luci will get to experience what a mortal life is really like, without the powers and obligations of his demonic heritage to get in the way. It brings up so many questions, but really only one of them matters.

“Will we be together?” He feels his companions’ grips tightening against him, and his own hold on them becomes firmer and more desperate in return. Altruism is well and good, but he’ll be damned if he’s going back to Earth, to live a different life in a different form, if he’s going to lose them. An eternity in Heavenly bliss might prove dull soon enough, but at least they’ll have each other.

God touches him then, just the slight bump of a finger against his forehead. Against Bean’s. Elfo’s. It feels like a spark. It’s a familiar sensation somehow.

“What-?” Bean asks, softly, then looks at Luci, her fingers brushing against his cheek. There’s a light in her eyes. She finds it familiar too.

Bonded. He can feel her the way he had when he’s been bound to her soul on earth. He hadn’t had a soul then… did he have one now? And there’s more… he can feel it. The new sensation of warmth licking at his mind is not from Bean. Elfo looks between the two of them, eyes wide. 

_Noobie._

“There.” God says. “Your souls are linked together now. And what I have linked, let no one tear asunder.” It occurs to Luci that he’s basically soul-married now. Funny, all the time they were on earth and together, none of them bothered asking about things like weddings or rings. God’s voice is wry. “Not that I expect anything would have. You’ve already been bound for a long time. The strongest bond there is.”

Love. God damn it. How sappy. 

“You might not be together.” God says, clarifying a point that Luci understands but the mortals probably don’t. “But you’ll always find each other.”

Luci thinks about it for a moment, silent. The one downside he’s always seen to Heaven, much like the downside of Hell, is that it’s basically an eternity of the same thing over and over again. An eternity of anything - good or bad - would get boring after a while. A new life, with new experiences and a new viewpoint… that could keep things interesting. And… they’ll be together.

He rests one paw on Bean’s hand. One on Elfo’s. As their gazes meet, he already knows what they’ll say, he can feel it in his soul. He smiles though, and makes it formal.

“What do you say, losers? Want to go again?”

-  
  
  


**Cleave [kleev] verb.**

  1. _To stick together; to adhere to; to cling fast_
  2. _To remain faithful_



_**-fin-** _

**Author's Note:**

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